


See Her Come Down, Through The Clouds

by HighVelocity



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-03
Packaged: 2018-03-28 20:12:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 597
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3868255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HighVelocity/pseuds/HighVelocity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cullen Rutherford feels like a fool in his attraction to the Inquisitor.</p>
            </blockquote>





	See Her Come Down, Through The Clouds

She is armoured, always. Even clad in the beige leathers that are her standard attire around Skyhold, she remains armoured. It lies in the steady gleam of her eyes and the cool amusement of her mouth, the set of her shoulders and the rigidity of her spine.

He wanted to tear it down, rip it free, and the thought shook him with the violence complicit in the actions he imagined; Ziva unclothed, Ziva bared to him, Ziva with the line of her throat exposed as his fingers tangled into her hair and _pulled_ , the cool waves of auburn flowing free. Ziva with her glittering amber-and-gold eyes, so much like his own. Ziva with her tattoo, a mark she no longer concealed.

Maker take him, but she had begun to walk his fever dreams, her body a flame. In his mind's eye he bore witness to the power of her thighs and the softness of her belly, the flare of her hips and the cascade of her auburn hair around her face, shadowing her darkened skin. Her strong arms and lean hands, only just beginning to be hardened with callouses. The shape of her shoulders and her muscled back, leading down to the divots just above her -

Cullen rolled over and buried his face in his pillow, muffling a disgusted little snarl. She was the bloody _Inquisitor_. What right had he? And a mage, to boot. Mages and Templars did not get along, in the wider world. Never mind that he was an ex-Templar and that the Inquisitor had gone on record, loudly, and on multiple occasions, to say that she had no issue with Templars and never had, save for those who forgot that mages were indeed, people, too. It still stood between them like 'Commander' and 'Lady Inquisitor, Herald of Andraste' did.

The same way the symptoms of lyrium withdrawal did. Maker's breath, the amount of times he awoke in a blind frenzy, desperately groping for a weapon, any weapon, to cut himself free... Cullen did not entirely trust himself. Here, in private, where it was him and him alone, the fear was more easily shed along with his sweat-dampened clothes, and then temporarily put to rest by the chill touch of Skyhold's night air as he prowled the battlements.

Suppose he, in the worst of his sleep-fogged moments, attacked her? Each awakening was laced with terror and intent to kill. He would be pleading, down on his knees, but it was no use, it was never any use, and the pain would fall. With Ziva's appearance in his dreams, the old familiar throb of pain had turned into the keen twist of a knife-blade. It was her stricken face he saw now, broken and bloodied, straining for one easy breath through the blood flooding her lungs, his sword buried in her che -

Cullen ground the heel of one hand against his temple, fist clenched in his sheets to drive away that image, only to have others crowd into the space it left behind. _The starburst of a lightless sun upon her forehead; throat cut open from ear to ear, the light gone from her eyes; strung up, a doll on strings, while Templar weapons drove deep into yielding flesh; collars and chains, pain, blood, screams, Abominations and raking claws, torn to shreds_ -

He slammed a fist into the mattress with a grunt, pushing up from bed. It was no use. Sleep would bring him no rest tonight. Heaving a sigh, Cullen rose from his bed and dressed once more, resigned to a night of paperwork.

**Author's Note:**

> Ziva Lillietta is my little mage Inquisitor and probably the world's most YOLO mage. I am terrible at this game.
> 
> Title taken from 'Draw Your Swords' by Angus & Julia Stone.


End file.
